The Road to Azkaban
by William Logan
Summary: Sirius Black arrives at Godric's Hollow to find two of his best friends dead, and goes in search of the one responsible to exact revenge.  Details the events immediately following the Potters' death from Sirius's pespective.
1. Chapter 1  The Secret Keeper

Disclaimer: You know the drill... I don't own Harry Potter, the characters, etc... thanks to JK Rowling for inventing this fantastic world and giving us fanfic writers a place to play around in.

Author's Note: I tried to keep this as accurate to the books as possible, I more than likely deviated here and there, and I do beg forgiveness for the potential abuse of fanficcer's license.

**The Road to Azkaban**

**By William Logan**

**Chapter 1: The Secret Keeper**

The large motorcycle slammed into the damp earth in front of the house on Godric's Hollow, giving its dark-clad rider a jolt as its roaring engine died, giving way to the eerie silence that hung in the air. Sirius Black dismounted swiftly, his long, black hair flowing over the back of his leather jacket as he rushed to the front door, which, much to his dismay, he found mostly in splinters resting against the wall. Black suffered an involuntary shudder from a mixture of the chill October air and the horror that he knew must be awaiting him inside, judging by the complete silence and the state he found the sitting room at the front of the house in. The couch was overturned and smoldering, a matching armchair lay in pieces around the room.

"James!" Black shouted, whiring about in a panic, his wand now drawn and at the ready, "This isn't the time for hide-and-seek, James, answer me!" The silence told him more than he wanted to know. He checked the kitchen and found it in much the same condition, a few odd Muggle appliances shattered on the floor, every cup and dish in the place shattered, even though none of them had left the now doorless cupboards.

"Lily, blast it all! Evans, if I find out this is some sort of cruel joke!" His voice was starting to break a bit, the truth coming to him quickly. First, he had found Pettigrew's hiding place empty, the only personal effect left in the place a quickly scrawled note: "So sorry, Sirius..." it had read. He ran up the stairs and nearly tripped over a body sprawled on the ground. Black dropped to his knee and let out a groan.

"James... oh, James..." He muttered, staring at his best friend, whose eyes were wide open in shock, the life completely gone from them, his glasses perched at an odd angle on his lifeless head, the right lens shattered. Recovering from the shock quickly, Sirius leapt to his feet and rushed to the nursery, the door of which was also quite in the same state as the front door of the house: splintered and laying on the ground, next to a woman's body, her red hair obscuring her face as she lay crumpled beside the crib against the wall. A Hollyhead Harpies mobile dangled over the crib, spinning wildly. Sirius closed his eyes and steeled himself for the worst, slowly approaching the crib. He slowly opened his eyes again and peered downward, finding Lily and James's infant son, Harry, his godson, awake, eyes fixed on the mobile with its rotating Quidditch players. He looked like he had just gotten done with a crying fit, being quite blotchy red in the face, his cheeks damp. On his forehead was a deep red scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. Sirius squinted at this and quirked his eyebrow curiously, but quickly ignored it and picked up the child, cradling him carefully and soothing him, trying to not begin weeping openly himself.

The sound of a loud, crackling fire starting up and then quickly going out came from downstairs, and Sirius was on guard again, placing Harry carefully back in his crib and drawing his wand again. He slowly made his way down the stairs, finding Rubeus Hagrid at the foot of the stairs, brandishing a pink umbrella menacingly, and Alastor Moody standing a few feet away, near the fireplace, his wand drawn, electric blue eye spinning about wildly. The latter tensed when he saw Black, readying his wand to cast a jinx, before scowling.

"Sirius! What're you doing here?" Moody demanded, his eye now focused completely on Black.

"I had reason to believe Voldemort had found James and Lily... turns out I was right," he scowled, "they're up here... what's left of them anyway."

"An' Harry?!" Hagrid wailed, his beetle-like eyes already pooling up with tears.

"He's all right, somehow," Black said, sighing with some relief, an odd sort of calm coming over him, "looks like Voldemort hit him with some spell or something... has an odd sort of scar on his forehead." Alastor rushed past Black to investigate, side-stepping James's body without even pausing a moment to look at his fallen comrade. "Real compassionate, that Moody is," Black muttered, making his way down the stairs. Hagrid pulled a rather large kerchief out from his waistcoat and blew his nose noisily. Black came up alongside him and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"I oughtter been here... mighta givin' 'em a fightin' chance aginst Yeh-Know-Who..." the half-giant sniffled loudly.

"You'd've been killed, too, Hagrid."

"Poor James an' Lily... never did nothin' ter no body, either..."

"Well," Sirius said with a small smile, "Lily never did, anyway..."

Moody trudged his way back down the stairs, Harry in his arms, wrapped in a blanket, "I contacted Dumbledore via Floo Network... looks like Voldemort tried to hit Harry with a killing curse, but it rebounded somehow... not really sure how it happened, but it did. This boy has got to be the luckiest little wizard alive."

"Both of his parents are dead, Mad-Eye, I'd hardly consider that luck," Sirius sneered. Alastor ignored this comment and continued.

"Hagrid, Dumbledore wants you to bring Harry to him in Little Whinging... ah... Number four, Privet Drive, to be specific."

"Here," Sirius said, "take my motorcycle... it'll be faster, just don't let any Muggles see you flying," he handed his keys over to the large man and patted him on the shoulder as he headed for the door.

"Hold on, Sirius..." Black stopped in his tracks at Moody's voice and looked back over his shoulder to see that the Auror still had his back turned to him, and was obviously staring at him with his magical eye, through the back of his own head, "You were James's best friend... this place was protected with a Fidelus... surely you know who their Secret Keeper was?" Moody turned slowly to face Sirius as he asked this question, but by the time he had turned around, a loud _crack_ signaled the disappearance of Sirius Black.


	2. Chapter 2 Padfoot and Wormtail

**Chapter 2: Padfoot and Wormtail**

Few people paid any mind to the stray black dog sniffing along the street just outside London a half a day after the incident at Godric's Hollow. Likewise, the dog seemed to be quite determined to locate something: the "stray" overheard some people joke that he must be the strongest dog in the world to think that he'd buried himself a bone through the concrete. One of the passersby could have sworn he saw the dog roll its eyes at this comment. Sirius was used to this type of stupidity when he wandered about in his animal form. It amazed him how intelligent people could be reduced to absolute idiots around animals, with the condescending baby talk many of them felt appropriate to address him with. He swore that he'd picked up Peter's scent last night, and it seemed to be getting stronger. It was a little past midday when he finally picked up a very strong scent near an alleyway. Unforunately for him, the scent was heavily masked by the stench of rotting garbage in a nearby dumpster. He saw a number of rats scurrying about beside the trash, picking out bits of slimy food to nibble on. Sirius slowly stalked towards these, eyeing them carefully.

There, he thought to himself, seeing a familiar face amongst the rats, ignoring the fact that even thinking about familiar rats was unusual, and began to prowl closer, a deep growl coming from his throat. A number of the rats scattered immediately before the bear-like dog, but one of them seemed to be frozen in fear as Sirius pounced, grabbing the rat by the scruff of its neck. Almost instantly, he could feel the rat's body changing. Growing. He followed suit and soon there were two men standing in the alley where there'd been the dog and rat struggling. Sirius, still dressed in his leather jacket and dark robes, and Peter Pettigrew, a rather chubby, beady-eyed man staring up at him pathetically, whimpering.

"Sirius! I'm so glad to see you!" He shrieked, trying to rush past Black out into the crowded street. Sirius grabbed his collar and slammed him against the brick wall with a snarl.

"Really? You don't seem it... let's talk, shall we?"

"Places to go, people to see, Sirius," Peter tried to protest but found himself at the business end of Black's wand, "of course, I always have time for my dear friends..."

"Don't you dare call me your friend, you gutter-crawling slime," Sirius snapped, inspiring another torrent of whimpers and moans from Peter, "Lily and James were your friends, too, and you betrayed them to Voldem---" 

"Don't say the Dark Lord's name!" Peter groaned, his beady eyes darting back and forth rapidly, as if expecting You-Know-Who to leap out of a nearby trashpile.

"Haven't you heard? He was finished last night... I've been hearing wizards murmur it through the night... he's done. Killing curse rebounded on him from Harry... Harry, Peter! He tried to kill my godson!" Sirius was nearly foaming at the mouth, his eyes ablaze with fury. "YOU WERE THEIR SECRET KEEPER!"

"He can't be dead," the smaller man protested, his watery eyes pleading with Sirius, "he's more powerful than you could possibly imagine... he threatened me with such things, Sirius!"

"Worse than what I'm planning, Peter?" Black looked down at him darkly, an even more terrifying change coming to his handsome features, "Perhaps locking you in a small closet with Remus at... shall we say... that time of the month? Oh, I do think I'd enjoy seeing that."

"Sirius, please! Let's not forget who made me their secret keeper... whose idea it was... please don't kill me, Sirius!"

"It's better than what you deserve!" At this shout, Peter let out a horrified squeal and wriggled his way away from Sirius, rushing out into the crowded street. Black saw Peter grab something from his pocket that glinted in the sunlight and hold it behind his back. Sirius rushed out into the street, the traffic coming to an abrupt stop with squeals of tires, people leaping out of their cars, shouting at the pair of strangely dress men.

"HELP!" Peter screamed, "HE BETRAYED THEM, HE DID! JAMES AND LILY POTTER!" Sirius looked about and saw that the eyes of at least two dozen muggles were now on him, staring in confusion and anger. "SOLD THEM OUT TO THE DARK LORD!" He continued on, despite the fact that Sirius had his wand trained on him, and let out another shriek of "HE'LL KILL US ALL!" Peter pointed wildly in the other wizard's direction, and Sirius noted that a small trickle of blood fell from his hand. He hadn't thought he'd shoved him against the wall that hard...

A pair of loud _crack_s sounded behind Sirius, who turned quickly to see Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt, a very large black wizard with a dark look on his face, behind him.

"Drop the wand, Sirius," Moody sneered at him, "and come with us quietly."

"No!" Sirius snapped, lunging forward with his wand pointed at Peter's head. Sirius saw a flash of light behind Peter's back, and then it happened... the street and part of the sidewalk behind it simply erupted, pieces of asphalt flying everywhere, crushing cars and people under them. Several pieces of sidewalk flew through shop windows, causing even more screaming and chaos.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Moody shouted and Sirius's wand went flying from his hand. Sirius didn't move even then, he just stared where Peter had been standing moments ago. There were several more loud _crack_s, and he was surrounded by Aurors, all of them with their wands squarely pointed at him. Moody made his way over to the bit of ruined street where Peter had been standing and bent down, picking something up with a dark scowl.

"His finger..." His electric blue eye swiveled from the finger to Sirius, "all that's left of Peter is his finger..." Sirius smiled, and dropped to his knees, throwing his hands in the air in amazement and just began to laugh. It was all he could do anymore. "Does this make you happy, Sirius?" Moody sneered, crossing over to glare down at Black, "your Dark Lord is dead... you betrayed your two best friends and godson to him, and you just exploded your school chum. Was James not enough for you? Looks like there was a mistake made when they chose their secret keeper."

Black stared up at Moody and started laughing even harder. It had been his idea to make Peter secret keeper to James and Lily. He had figured Voldemort wouldn't have thought to even bother with such a pathetically weak wizard. He had just heard one of the other Aurors return to Moody with a report. Twelve muggles dead in addition to Pettigrew. Sirius was laughing so hard now that tears streamed down his face. He was guilty, even if he hadn't uttered the curses himself. He was guilty of orphaning his godson, guilty of Peter's death. Peter was such a coward, Sirius laughed to himself, he ended up killing himself instead of letting someone else do it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could almost swear he saw a rat run off, limping, leaving a trail of blood behind it. He had lost his mind, he decided instantly, his throat becoming raw from laughing.

"Take him away, he disgusts me," Moody sneered, and two Aurors fixed a pair of magical shackles on Sirius's wrists, and they fastened tight with a flash of blue light. More wizards, these from the Memory Modification Department, were appearing now, talking to the muggles, offering them potions that would leave them highly susceptible to suggestion. Black let out a few last chuckles at this. Twelve muggles dead, and no one would actually ever remember exactly what had happened. Even Black wasn't sure what had actually happened now... all he knew was that he was heading for Azkaban. His only hope was that he'd see his cousin Bellatrix there to get the opportunity to laugh in her face that her precious Dark Lord had fallen. He shivered, thinking about the events of the past few days, and suddenly grew rather quiet, realizing once again... all of this had been his fault. Lily and James's death... the attack on Harry... the death of all these muggles, simply because he'd thought himself more important and a more likely target than Peter. The rest of the trip to Azkaban was a dark, sullen one... Sirius praying for a chance to redeem himself, someday, perhaps...

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FIN

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